2-12: Words We Cannot Say

Southwest of Ghost Village, perched atop the Arm of Okran mountain range, is a large town called World's End. The gang decides to head here next to sell some of their loot; while Flotsam Village would serve well enough, they've already seen what there is to see there. It's time to explore somewhere new.

While the Arm of Okran is technically Holy Nation territory, the paladins can't be bothered to actually patrol the mountains. The gang takes the climb at their leisure.

While the front gate is flanked by a pair of big stupid-looking Holy Lord Phoenix statues (Jam's opinion), World's End is not controlled by the Holy Nation. The Tech Hunters run this town. The gang is interested in seeing what the Tech Hunters have to sell, but having arrived in the middle of the night, it only feels right to take a load off and hit up the bar.

It occurs to Riddly as she walks away that String would have been pretty fun to sit and drink with but she can't un-commit to her little power move now. The price she pays for winning the bullshitting contest is having to drink with a bunch of people who have nothing to say.

Next bar over, Jam finds a few people interested in being hired, but no one who particularly compels them. World's End boasts four whole bars, which Riddly reckons must be some sort of world record. Tech Hunters must really love to drink—and who could blame them? A successful ruin dive is well worth celebrating.

Come morning, the shops open. There's a weapon shop, an armour shop, a hat shop, a crossbow shop, a materials shop—pretty much the works. The travel shop here even doubles as a robotics shop, with a skeleton bed available for rent and a few prosthetic limbs for sale. The Hives are in fact the only modern prosthetics manufacturers—the Tech Hunters don't make their own but repurpose old skeleton limbs as prosthetics. These are better than Hive prosthetics but also much pricier, and the shop doesn't have any left arms that catch Jam's interest today. Still, it's a good resource to keep in mind should the gang need it in the future.

While World's End is mostly shops and bars by volume, it's all built around the University of Machinists, a huge, weathered building at the back of town.

The Machinists are the faction that makes and distributes modern research books. They're not at all politically influential, they don't have any holdings, but anyone looking to start a new settlement is going to rely on their writings to make anything with any kind of standard of living whatsoever. Burn decides to head inside to see how things are going with them these days.

In stark contrast to the rusted, weathered exterior, the inside of the university looks damn near spotless. Machinists all around Burn are absorbed in their work at various research benches, a medical crafting bench, and an electrics crafting bench. Sadly, these benches aren't for the gang to use. While it's fairly common to see crafting workshops in various settlements, even allying with the faction that owns them does not grant player characters access. The gang will have to build their own stations if they want to craft things.

That will be a concern for later. For now, Burn keeps touring the university. Soon, they actually run into Finch, the head researcher!

Burn decides to prod Finch a bit to get their measure and concludes that they're probably not exactly bringing in droves of new recruits. Even so, the Machinists seem to be doing well. They're certainly getting work done. After a bit more walking around, Burn seeks out that assistant Finch mentioned, Iyo. Perhaps they will be a bit more of a conversationalist.

What's the truth that no one will ever know!? Iyo knows. Burn presumably knows. You and I don't get to know. That little line is something Iyo will only say when talking to a fellow skeleton and nobody ever elaborates on it or brings it up again. Whatever Burn may think of the truth and the hiding thereof, they do not share it with the rest of the gang. It's so painfully mysterious.

While Burn is busy at the university, Knife checks out yet another one of World's End's many bars.

Knife makes a mental note to tease Burn about “skeleton voodoo” sometime and sits down for a couple drinks. Scattered across the town, the gang whiles away some time and a few Cats before gathering back together, ready to hit the road once more.

There is more the gang could do in this part of the world. There's plenty more cannibals to fight and more to see beyond the Cannibal Plains. They could look for a way over to the Post-Ancient Workshop they marked on their map to the west. Engineering Research isn't a reward they can really do much with right now, though. Instead, they're interested in seeing what the lands to the south have to offer.